"The Meg" Is Fun, Expensive, and Really, Really Dumb--What More Do You Need??
By: Keaton Marcus
Genre/Sci-Fi/Thriller
Age Rating/13+
Lemonradar/51% sour
So What’s The Story?
Hi, this is Keaton Marcus from Sweet and Sour Movie Reviews and today I will be reviewing the newest addition to the creature-feature genre, Warner Bros.’ The Meg. When a deep-sea submersible is attacked by a massive shark known as the Megalodon thought to be extinct, it lies deep down in the Pacific Ocean with the crew trapped inside, expert diver Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham) is recruited by a Chinese Oceanographer (Winston Chao) so save the lost crew and the ocean itself before the entire world faces its 75-foot threat which turns out to be the same creature Jonas encountered on his last mission years ago.
How Was The Cast?
A very unusual choice for the casting directors to choose action flick actor Jason Statham to fight the shark, but for now it seems to be working out for audiences just fine. More of the cast includes Bingbing Li as Suyin, Rainn Wilson as Morris and Cliff Curtis as Mac. As I said actor Jason Statham known for The Transporter franchise, Parker, The Fast and Furious franchise, Spy, The Italian Job etc. as the diving expert Jonas Taylor. Although neither as convincing as his game action roles in previous movies, Statham manages to still create an enjoyable and fun performance even with a shakily written narrative and watery story which is mostly covered up by the actor’s sheer effort and energy put into the main character role luring in audiences for another solid performance by the brilliant actor. Secondly we saw Chinese actress Bingbing Li known for Transformers: Age of Extinction, The Forbidden Kingdom, Resident Evil: Retribution etc. as Chinese scientist Suyin. Like Statham, Li mostly specialized as side-characters in high-octane action films and after her last terrible major performance four years ago in Transformers: Age of Extinction, the actress largely improves giving a solid female and diverse role model, solid acting while trudging through the mediocre brains of the overall film which may or may not be a huge endorsement to the quality of the movie, but still diverts viewers from other flaws that are floating nearby. Thirdly we have actor Rainn Wilson known for Smurfs: The Lost Village, The Boy, The Office, Family Guy etc. as the cocky billionaire Morris. Considering last year Wilson was the evil wizard Gargamel in Smurfs: The Lost Village, the actor did a solid job on delivering some laughable jokes to fulfill his character’s title and although we have seen other (better) original versions of his role, the actor still uses his previous comedic talents to lighten the movie making the flick much more ridiculous and fun which all to audiences brains as purely awesome. Lastly we saw actor Cliff Curtis known for The Last Airbender, Live Free or Die Hard, Fear the Walking Dead, The Insider etc. Looking at his lengthy career proves that this actor is a pure mixed bag and you really do not know what to expect and in this case audiences should not expect much with Curtis delivering a stiff and choppy performance as a character that director Turteltaub could not care about less pounding the actor to death in his almost god-awful performance and his worst besides his role as the Fire Lord in terrible Fantasy movie The Last Airbender, and with The Meg it creates another slump in his career.
Is It Worth Your While?
Directing this blatantly ridiculous, but fun shark pic is filmmaker Jon Turteltaub known for Last Vegas, National Treasure, Cool Runnings etc. Though not as talented or actually as smart for that matter as director Steven Spielberg on Jaws, Turteltaub continues his so-so career with another incoherent, fun action-filled creature-feature that will never match up to Jaws (as I said) or even 2016’s The Shallows, but it does tower over most creature-features and is marginally better than 2017’s 47 Meters Down and while it still could have been much better considering the whopping premise, The Meg settles for a so-so directed, highly entertaining, action filled decent thrill ride that adds to the shark attack genre with mostly satisfaction. Special effects wise, The Meg really took too the skies with budgets, spending a massive 150M on really only the giant shark which although seems a little much is very appropriately scary and real; Plus, it ends up huge for the genre with Jaws (7M), 47 Meters Down (5.5M) and The Shallows (25M) which may not end up the most profitable for Box Office, it was still wisely spent on CGI. Storyline and plotting wise, The Meg does not take a huge chomp and although filled with thrills and action, it may not be the cleverest out there, but for a Summer blockbuster the film does decently well by diverting audiences from the clearly seen flaws with a purely enjoyable romp and although it might not cover it up fully, most viewers in the mood for a giant shark flick will be satisfied.
Aging ‘A Megalodon’
Commonly sticking to its PG-13 MPAA rating and other similar shark movies with violence that includes many bloody wounds, character deaths, in one scene a woman falls and is stabbed by a screwdriver, chum (fish guts) left in the water for bait, sudden shark attacks (jump scares), a young girl is briefly in an action sequence, a dead whale is found with chunks torn out of its carcass and one scene dead sharks are sprawled all over dead because of poachers and the shark is cut open and stabbed in the eye. Language wise there are uses of s..t, son of a b..ch, hell, damn, bastard and a young girl uses the insult of a-hole. Sexuality wise, there is one scene where Jonas is shirtless and a woman is flattered by this plus other scenes of flirting are included.
Chomp, Chomp Shark Down
The Meg 60% sweet/sour
Violence: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
Language: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
Sex: ⭐☆☆☆☆
Age Rating: 13+
47 Meters Down 52% sour
Violence: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
Language: ⭐⭐☆☆☆
Sex: ⭐☆☆☆☆
Age Rating: 12+
The Meg 60% sweet/sour
Storyline: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
Cast: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
Role Models: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
47 Meters Down 52% sour
Storyline: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
Cast: ⭐⭐☆☆☆
Role Models: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
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